Hoodie's evolution from fashion mainstay to symbol of injustice

By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN

Updated 2010 GMT (0310 HKT) March 27, 2012

Why I march for Trayvon Martin8 photos

Trayvon shooting inspires message – New York photographer Darrel Dawkins wants to send a message about the Trayvon Martin story, as do many iReporters who shared self-portraits in support of the movement. "We shouldn't stay silent. We should basically talk about those who are out there discriminating and those who are racist."

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Why I march for Trayvon Martin8 photos

'I march to cure the blindness' – "I march to cure the blindness that has continued to plague our country," says La'Keitha Daniels, an attorney from Atlanta who participated in a rally and afterwards snapped this photo with the iPhone Instagram app. "Trayvon could've been my brother or my son. He is from the city I was born and raised in. His mother lives in my home community," she says.

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Why I march for Trayvon Martin8 photos

It could have been my son – "That could have been my son on the street coming back from the store," says Stephany McGregor of Birmingham, Alabama. She and her 17-year-old boy, Lloyd Laufili Time, pictured here, attended a vigil for Martin on Sunday and have encouraged others to post hoodie photos.

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Freezing images to show pain – Felix Masi, a freelance photographer, says documented and marched in a Washington rally to "freeze images that will hopefully help others understand the pain and tragedy of killing innocent people because of their color."

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Wants 'Stand Your Ground' law repealed – Al Mealey marched with about 1,000 people in Los Angeles, California, on Monday because he wants the "stand your ground" law repealed. "The law makes no sense. It simply legalizes vigilantism."

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Fighting for two teenage sons – Coco High of Kingwood, Texas, marched in a rally in Houston on Monday. "I have two teenage boys and my heart just hurts for this mother, never to see your son again, I can't imagine," she says. High and her 17-year-old son, Jordan, right, snapped a portrait together and edited it with the photo app Color Touch.

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Tired of 'senseless violence' – "I marched for Trayvon Martin was because I was tired of seeing young black men like myself (and all youth for that matter) being gunned down due to senseless violence," says Terrence Robinson, who attended two Trayvon Martin rallies last weekend in Chicago, Illinois. "I was tired of hearing about and seeing parents have to choose coffins instead of colleges."

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Angry that youth are 'perceived as troublemakers' – She hasn't marched in any rallies, but Norma Valdez of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, has been furious since she heard about the Trayvon Martin story. She took a photo donning her "I see dumb people" hoodie in solidarity with the cause. "I can't believe in our day and time people are still perceiving our youth as troublemakers, and I find it hard to believe race wasn't a factor."

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Story highlights

Protesters in Trayvon Martin case have worn hoodies in solidarity against racial profiling

The hoodie has evolved from roots in hip-hop culture to enjoy mainstream appeal

Geraldo Rivera criticized for remarks that hoodie played role in Martin's death

Image "all part of the demonization of the black male," hip-hop scholar says

Whether you're a high schooler or Ted Kaczynski, a soccer mom or a Rocky Balboa fan, you've likely embraced the hooded sweatshirt at some point in life.

For all its comfort and simplicity, the hoodie leads a dual life. Utilitarian and homogenous in form, hooded garments have been wardrobe staples of monks and hip-hop stars, Silicon Valley programmers and tycoons alike.

Yet it still carries a social stigma that has made it the object of legislative bans and political speeches. Now, amid widespread outcry over the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, the hoodie has become a symbol of social injustice.

In the month since the 17-year-old was shot to death by a neighborhood watch patrolman, protesters nationwide have worn hoodies in a nod to the shooter's description of Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman told a 911 operator that he saw a "suspicious" person wearing a "dark hoodie" moments before he shot the teen in what he said was self-defense, according to police. Martin's family and supporters said they believe race played a role in the shooting.

But those who participated in what have been called "hoodie marches" across the country this past week sought not only justice for Martin or possible prison time for Zimmerman. They wore the hoodie in solidarity against racial profiling and Florida's "stand your ground" gun law. They marched in the name of anyone who wears hoodies at the risk of being perceived as "suspicious."

Hoodies in pop culture 7 photos

Hoodies in pop culture7 photos

Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wears a hoodie during a keynote address at a 2010 conference in San Francisco. Protesters nationwide are wearing hoodies in support of Trayvon Martin, 17, who was wearing one when he was shot dead while walking in a gated community in Sanford, Florida.

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Worshippers wear hoodies at tribute

The hoodies continue to show up at rallies, on Senate floors and in churches, and the list of prominent people joining the movement is growing. Clay Aiken wore a hoodie in an interview Monday night on "Access Hollywood," and LeBron James tweeted an image of Miami Heat players wearing hoodies with the words #WeAreTrayvonMartin, #Hoodies and #stereotypes.

Former talk-show host Geraldo Rivera triggered a debate over the role Martin's hoodie might have played in his death, opining that "his hoodie killed Trayvon Martin as surely as George Zimmerman did." Rivera apologized for his comments, calling them "politically incorrect," but stopped short of retracting his claim that parents of black and Latino youngsters in particular should "not let their young children go out wearing hoodies."

But, even before that fateful February night, hoodies were already wrapped up in negative racial connotations, said Imani Perry of Princeton University's Center for African American Studies.

"While it is clear that hoodies are a popular form of attire for Americans of all ethnicities and ages, it is a style that has become particularly popular for black and Latino youth," she said.

"Because of the pervasive and trenchant racial stereotypes associated with black young people, especially males, their styles are often singled out for criticism, as signs of criminality and misdeeds," she said. "But in truth this is simply another form of stigmatization against the person underneath the clothing, and only superficially has anything to do with the clothing."

Even without the racial aspect, hoodies have an image problem, thanks to their association with criminal activity, said Cynthia Jasper, professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Suspects in hooded clothing frequently appear in surveillance camera footage of armed robberies and law enforcement sketches of wanted criminals. Among the most memorable was Kaczynski, the "Unabomber" who engaged in a mail bombing campaign that spanned nearly 20 years but who first entered the public realm in a forensic sketch of a man with hoodie and sunglasses.

Hollywood tends to magnify the stereotype by recycling it in scenes depicting violence and crime, furthering ingraining it into the public's collective conscience, Jasper said. People in turn impose those associations onto the wearer, regardless of the person's intention.

"When people interpret your way of dressing, hoodie or whatever, people interpret that as something you control," she said. "You can't control how tall you're going to be or your hair and eyes, but you can control what you put on your body, and your clothing is interpreted as representing who you are."

It's often not a fair association, she said, but it's still the one most people conjure up within seconds of meeting someone as a way of processing and categorizing the person in front of them.

"We have to organize our world, and there's so much that comes before us every single day," Jasper said. "It's a shortcut to help us organize the magnitude of information that comes at us."

The history of the hoodie

Hooded garments weren't always shrouded in nefarious intent, though their function of obscuring the wearer goes back to the Middle Ages, when monks and scholars wore hoods to shield their faces. Hoods served as protective items for farmworkers into the 19th century, worn as part of jackets or overcoats, said Mark-Evan Blackman, assistant professor of apparel design at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology.

The knitted, hooded sweatshirt was popularized in the 1930s by apparel manufacturer Champion for the working class and evolved into sportswear for the mass market over the course of the 20th century.

Hoodies as we know them became part of youth popular culture in the early 1970s in New York when graffiti artists wore them to hide their identities as they "bombed" buildings and walls, said hip-hop scholar Halifu Osumare, director of African-American studies at the University of California-Davis.

The same era marked the hoodie's major film debut. The 1976 release of "Rocky" featured the working-class title character in well-worn gray sweats as he trains through the streets of Philadelphia and makes his memorable ascent up the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

As hip-hop culture spread in the 1980s, the hoodie became part of the look associated with street style. When hip-hop went mainstream, penetrating homes in white middle-class suburbia and beyond, hoodies remained a key part of hip-hop's global commercialized look, with rapper Eminem memorializing the hoodie's oversize style in the 2002 film "8 Mile."

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is another famous white man to make the hoodie a mainstay of his look. When he first entered the public sphere, Zuckerberg was rarely seen without a hoodie, although he has been transitioning to blazers and sport jackets more recently.

Nowadays, not a single suburban high schooler, soccer mom or Walmart shopper would seem out of place in a hoodie. Nor would Kanye West, for that matter. Hoodies can be found in big-box stores for less than $10 or emblazoned with the high-fashion logos of Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren or Juicy Couture for north of $100.

The flipside of its generic mainstream appeal lies in its association with crime and mischief. In the last decade, politicians in the United Kingdom, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, endorsed campaigns to ban hooded tops and baseball caps in public places.

When current Prime Minister David Cameron was stumping for his party, he argued for addressing the underlying causes of what drove people who wore hooded garments to break the law. Critics branded it Cameron's "hug-a-hoodie" message, but he still won office.

Even as hip-hop moved away from its urban roots, its "commodification" in mainstream pop nurtured the legend of the "gangster bad man," Osumare said.

"The hoodie has become one of those cultural markers of the gangster outlaw. It is part of the construction that happens within capitalism in terms of how things are bought and sold in the marketplace," she said. "So now when people see a black man with a hoodie in the street, it becomes an image of a potential thug or gangster. You have these stereotypical images in mind not of what everyone is actually like but what capitalism has promoted as part of this style trend."

Meanwhile, the hoodie has been appropriated by nearly every fashion genre, from skateboarders to grunge rockers and high-end designers, said Blackman, the Fashion Institute of Technology professor.

For some, it's not necessarily a fashion statement but simply a practical garment to be worn as a layer or an overcoat, he said.

"It's all part of the demonization of the black male and the creation of this stereotypical image of him walking down the street in the hoodie," she said. "It happens all the time, and this is what's behind the protests. People don't see it as an isolated incident; they see it as a historic trend."

Vowing to keep fighting for his son Trayvon -- even after Zimmerman was acquitted of murder -- Tracy Martin said that his family wants to turn "negative energy" surrounding their plight "into a positive."